Portraits from an English ‘lunatic asylum’ circa 1869

Portraits from a “lunatic asylum” or the Inmates at West Riding Asylum, in Yorkshire, England Private madhouses proliferated in 18th century Britain on a scale unseen elsewhere. In 1800s, psychiatry was becoming established as a medical specialty. The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, where these portraits were taken, was a prime example of an operating … Read more